You can gain riding skill by successfully attacking things while mounted, but, unlike the other combat skills, only attacks against significantly more challenging opponents reliably count. If I want to train riding, I have to attack an opponent with considerably more defense than I have offense and somehow land the attack. Attacking an opponent with the same defense as my offense seems to only work part of the time and if anything happens to drop my opponent's defense (fatigue, leg wounds, prone, whatever) then I learn nothing. The gains for every other combat skill I've encountered are far more forgiving in the range of opponents that you may fight and learn from.

I'd simply like to see riding brought more in line with the other combat skills like melee, marksmanship, dodge, and weapons.

You overhear the following rumor:"I saw one of those Shadgard folk come barging into Grif's and shoot one of the patrons on the spot. Shadgard must be a pretty rough place with such outlaws running rampant."

You overhear the following rumor:"I saw one of those Shadgard folk come barging into Grif's and shoot one of the patrons on the spot. Shadgard must be a pretty rough place with such outlaws running rampant."

After the firearms update, I've found myself gaining ~0.0062 riding skill when I shoot something from horseback. For comparison's sake, I'm gaining ~0.035 marksmanship and firearms skill from those same shots (I'm using a musket and aiming so that is one shot every seven seconds). I'm still gaining zero riding skill from charging (gained 0.012 melee and 0.010 weapon skill), trampling (nor any other skill, but I think that is intentional), or melee combat (gained 0.015 melee and 0.015 weapon).

You can ask Jill: I was absolutely ecstatic this morning to get even that little bit of riding skill. Riding is one of Elystole's core skills, but it's been weeks since he last learned anything.

You overhear the following rumor:"I saw one of those Shadgard folk come barging into Grif's and shoot one of the patrons on the spot. Shadgard must be a pretty rough place with such outlaws running rampant."